Saturday, September 27, 2014

How does investment in agriculture plays part in economic growth? Can we invest in mixed farming and maintain ecosystem? a simple circle! plants feeds from animals and animals feeds from plants does it sense?

we take chicken manure and feed plants then we take plants green leaves, oil seeds like sunflower cakes and corns to feed chicken. Organic ferming.

Africa is one of the most fertile
regions on earth. Yet, while the continent boasts 60% of the world’s
uncultivated arable land, one in four Africans still go hungry and Africa still
imports 40% of the food it needs.

While recent developments in African
agriculture show tremendous promise, the continent still lacks viable ways of channeling
investment money to the millions of dynamic entrepreneurs with viable business
ideas in sectors such as farming, aquaculture and agro-processing. Indeed,
Africa is losing huge potential investments each year. This loss has effects for jobs and economic growth.

These are a few key changes
necessary to make this possible.

1. Attract greater investment

Over the past decade, Africa has
harboured some of the fastest growing economies in the world, to a large extent
linked to oil, gas and mining. Growth like that draws investors looking for further
opportunities and the challenge is to remove the obstacles that prevent this
investment money from reaching the continent.

African agriculture has an abundance
of investment opportunities: in equipment, transport, irrigation and infrastructure; investment for farmers to go from subsistence to
commercial farming; and investment in training, research and support for
smallholders as well as small and medium enterprises. Such investments could
deliver manifold returns; for the investors, yes, but also in terms of jobs,
food security and better incomes for small farmers.

2. Reduce the cost of money

For local investment in agriculture to flourish, it is crucial that the cost of borrowing money
be reduced. Real interest rates on loans to agricultural projects (and to small
shops and industry ventures, for that matter) exceed 20% in many African
countries. No business can thrive if it has to borrow at those rates. It should
be possible to access capital well below 10% – even in so-called frontier
markets – if we simplify banking, reduce perceptions of risk and introduce
functioning insurance.

Venture capital and equity must be
made more available. Financing from international and regional financial
institutions could be put to good use by guaranteeing and underwriting equity
investors who invest in small enterprises. And we need to make Africa’s stock
markets more accessible to both small and international actors.

3. Strengthen appropriate
governmental regulation

Should governments just “get out of
the way” and let the private sector sort these questions out by itself?
Absolutely not. If the past five years of global crisis have taught us anything,
it is that markets work best when they are well regulated for the benefit of
society.

Governments need to ensure, for
example, that smallholder farmers – especially women – can access new sources
of credit and equity, and that they are not squeezed out by large agribusiness.
Governments can encourage the creation of cooperatives, provide technical
support and training, help with the development of new seed varieties, invest
in roads and water systems, and protect against predatory investors.

Farmers also need well-regulated
commodity exchanges so they can sell their products at global market rates,
rather than to monopoly buyers who squeeze the prices.

4. Strike a balance between big and
small businesses

Africa needs large, commercial farms
as well as small ones. But it doesn’t need foreign investors who appropriate
land and water to supply food and bio-fuels to other countries, while creating
few jobs and driving populations from their homes. Only strong and principled
policies by responsible governments can ensure the right balance between large
and small, foreign and local.

Such a balance is already being
struck in some countries. Nigeria’s agriculture minister has launched an
ambitious plan to add 20m metric tons of food to the domestic supply, while creating
3.5m new jobs. In the first year of its transformation push, Nigeria reached over 75% of its job creation target and has met the
first Millennium Development Goal, cutting hunger by half, three years ahead of
schedule.

Other countries are making similar
strides. Such success stories exist all over Africa. If we scale these up, the
continent can rid itself of hunger within a decade, create jobs and generate
growth for both within and far beyond.

The Africa Progress Panel, chaired
by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, will this year explore ways of
meeting this challenge. Its 2014 report will focus on how African farmers and
fishing communities can access the money they need to create green and blue
revolutions in Africa.

Among of tourism attractions in Southern Highland region is Mbozi meteorite which is located about 70 km from Mbeya city. On the way to the site you will enjoy to see coffee farms. A first coffee plant was planted at Mbozi Mission hospital in 1902 by Bauchman the first missionary in Mbozi.

Nowadays coffee are grown by every body.

The introduction of avocados as commercial crops has played a vital part in growing economy as every villager can grow avocados (parachichi) and thus increasing family income.

A farmer is grafting avocado seedlings.

Mbozi meteorite about 12 tones of weight 98 nickel

Avocados nurseries before grafting

Grafted avocado seedlings ready for planting

Coffee farms at Itaka village in Mbozi district

a farmer Mr Kenneth Mwang'amba working on his coffee farm at Itaka village

Mr Mwang'amba now is our ambassador in coffee matters

Let's talk Coffee that is how slogan tries to tell

Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (Tacri) Mbimba station is performing miracles in coffee seedlings production. Mr Isack Mushi the station manager training farmers on how to care coffee especially pruning suckers

Coffee waiting harvest

Tanzania's President encouraging farmers to extend more farms in cash crops. He was officially opening CRDB branch in Mbozi to enable farmers groups to access credit facilities.

Mbozi farmers can manage to build best houses and live at least best life only from coffee produces

You can commercialize indigenous poultry and increase income especially for rural areas in Tanzania, the demand is high.

The mixed farming can improve nutrition and standard of living in rural Tanzania where most children fail to attend to school for primary education due to poverty.

The Agricultural Inputs Fund (AGITF) in Tanzania has played a role in alleviating poverty by lending loans to farmers which lead directly in creating employment as seen in the picture where tractor is offloading banana plants ready for planting.

This has direct impact in poverty eradication as these workers get daily or weekly pay to enable their families get breads.

The mixed farming ensures food security at household level and national wide as a whole. Vegetable and other crops are inter cropped

President Obama visited Tanzania. Things are still needing foreign investors to partner with Tanzanian to bring changes politically, economically and socially.

The people living in remote or rural areas are highly suffering from poverty so something should be done

People especially who lives in town or where can access energy (electricity) services can easily get knowledge and technical know how though media. They can learn how to grow chicken and using incubators also to know challenges facing farmers like poultry diseases.

The area is also suitable for cattle keeping who are interested to invest in this sector are highly welcomed

Fish farming is also another deal, in mixed farming nothing is impossible.

Mr Morohani Mwamlima a farmer at Igamba village showing something on how to feed fish

The fish farming is a new idea in Mbeya region so investors are welcomed to boost this sector

RIU Research Into Use an institution playing a vital part in providing education to rural farmers, the government should work in hand to hand with this institute.

Thinking about maize farming? The land is here call +255762246322 or +255715246322 if you need land do not hesitate just call

Tanzania's President Hon Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete signing document for agriculture enhancing program. In Tanzania we have special program with slogan Kilimo Kwanza or Agriculture First that is to put ahead agriculture.

Maize farming in Momba district the land is suitable in growing finger millet, sorghum, sesame and fruits like water melon, cucumbers and veggies.

The maize farms are located from Chimbuya village in Mbozi district up to Mkutano village in Momba district but you can grow rice in low lands of Kamsamba, Chitete, Msangano, Kapele and Myunga wards of Momba district.

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Mr Robinson at his Sweet Unit Farm, Bara village in Mbozi district. A very good farmer with more than 50 acres (Estate)

The Mbeya Region Commissioner Hon Kandoro addressing about importance of investing in intensive agricultureAre you wishing to invest in agriculture? If so you need land. Where to get land for intensive farming especially coffee, maize and fruits production in Southern Highland of Tanzania. Do not be disappointed what you need is to call +255762246322 or +255715246322 all troubles will be compromised by a single call.We think of SAGCOT

We need to step up
food production and one place in the world where there is great potential to do
just that is Africa. This is where we can get real growth. We have to use
existing farmland and intensify production. And to do so we need better
technologies that are sustainable,” says Johan Janse van Rensburg, a marketing
specialist at Dow.

Not only coffee in Mbeya region but also papaya and avocados can be grown.

Since 2012 when Tanzania’s
Prime Minister Hon Peter Mizengo Kayanza Pinda chaired the Investors summit in
his office how far have they gone? It was 30th April 2012.

The
Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) is an inclusive,
multi-stakeholder partnership to rapidly develop the region’s agricultural
potential. SAGCOT was initiated at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Africa summit
2010 with the support of founding partners including farmers, agri-business,
the Government of Tanzania and companies from across the private sector.

SAGCOT’s
objective is to foster inclusive, commercially successful agribusinesses that
will benefit the region’s small-scale farmers, and in so doing, improve food
security, reduce rural poverty and ensure environmental sustainability. The
risk-sharing model of a public-private partnership (PPP) approach has been
demonstrated to be successful in achieving these goals and SAGCOT marks the
first PPP of such a scale in Tanzania’s agricultural history.